DFAT "Reconsider your need to travel" - Ethiopia

[Tiki]

We have a trip to Africa coming up soon and we usually use Insure and Go because of my husband's pre-existing conditions (gout, diabetes 2 controlled by pills). I see that they don't cover travel to countries DFAT lists as "Reconsider your need to travel". We only have 4 days in Ethiopia, 2 of which are in Addis Ababa. The UK and Canada have withdrawn their blanket travel warnings and only warn against specific areas which we aren't going to. Australia is stubbornly refusing to downgrade the warning which screws up our chance for travel insurance. Another oddity, we have a 2 day layover in Entebbe and Insure and GO specifically exclude Uganda amongst other countries like Syria and Yemen from coverage. I have done extensive research and I am confident the areas we will be in are safe. We used miles for all flights, some sourced from Amex MR - SPG - AA and some from my USA credit cards.Are there any travel insurance companies who don't exclude specific countries?We are also going to Zambia & Namibia which are easily covered by insurance.

 

[asterix]

My PDS seems to say the warning has to be "Do not travel".

My Insure and Go PDS says:
Any claim resulting from you travelling in, to or through a country or area included on the list of countries not recommended by the Australian Government through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade – Smartraveller.gov.au - Pages - Smartraveller or those countries subject to an embargo from the UN Security Council or from any other international organisation to which Australia belongs, as well as events occurring in any international conflicts or interventions involving the use of force or coercion. This exclusion does not apply to Section A (Cancelling your trip before departure) if you decide to cancel or curtail your trip because a location in your planned itinerary is added or upgraded to the smarttraveller list of “Do not Travel” locations after the policy issue date and before your departure date on the Policy Schedule. (Please note that other exclusions apply which may affect your ability to claim).

 

[drron]

We have just had that problem as we will be spending 4 days in Uganda.More of a problem because I have hit 70.
So we ended up with a policy from Allianz Global Assistance-I think it is only through TAs.Ok for us as a neice is a TA-To be excluded the country has to have a red alert-Do Not travel.
A bonus it ended up $30 cheaper than the insureandgo annual policy.

 

[Tiki]

@ Asterix: Yes you're right! For some reason I thought it was the "Reconsider" level but it does say "Do not travel". That's a relief! ****************************@Drron: How cool, someone else is going to Uganda! I had a look at Allianz website but they don't have the pre-existing condition clearance thing on the basic insurance option. All we need is Basic, we just want the medical covered. I did a dummy run with the Comprehensive coverage and it was almost $300 more than Insure and Go. We are only staying in Entebbe area for the Mabamba Shoebills and Botanical Gardens for birding. I've already seen the gorillas and chimps back in the mid-90's when it cost $150 for a gorilla permit! I think we will be ok and it's very unlikely anything would happen in those 2 days and if it did we would just have to pay cash for medical treatment. At least we won't have to worry about Ethiopia!